“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
-John 1:1-5; 14–18
And so we look at today…
The Word Became Flesh
Jesus is reffered to as the “Word” many times in scripture, and they all point to one thing:
Jesus shows us the mind and heart of God.
This of it this way:
How do you find out what someone is thinking?
What someone cares about?
What they’re passionate about?
They tell you.
They speak or write: they communicate in some way.
One of the most amazing things Jesus brought us was revealing God’s mind and heart in physical form.
For years God communicated through prophets, visions and various other ways (and He still does) – but even better, we’re told that we get the benefit of hearing/seening Jesus.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power…” -Hebrews 1:1–3
Jesus is the exact imprint of The Father’s nature.
That’s incredible to think about.
If you want to know how God thinks: look at Jesus
If you want to know how God responds to different situations: look at Jesus
If you want to see what God values: look at Jesus
If you want to know God: look at Jesus
Jesus even explicitly expressed this during His time on earth:
“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” -John 5:19 (John 6:38; 8:28; 12:49)
So, as we look at Jesus this Christmas, let us remember that He’s the perfect representation of God The Father.
And to close this post, I want to share one of my favorite passages of scripture.
In this section, John is laying down some ground rules before continuing to encourage the church to continue loving and following Jesus, to stay far away from sin and ungodliness and to love others with the love that Jesus gave us.
His foundation for this book (1 John) is that he and others actually got to see Jesus. They saw Him, touched Him, heard from Him. Jesus was a physical, real person Who brought emotional and spiritual life to everyone He saw. Jesus was a real person Who brought many literally back to life.
Jesus was really real, and really died, and really rose from the dead and visited hundreds of people at a time so that there would be no doubt that He truly was God and came back to life.
May you trust John’s beautiful testimony and the testimony of many others:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” -1 John 1:1–4